Language Barrier: “Faith”

I write here to reclaim those key words which are now hurled at me daily via the news media with new, perverted meaning. Tops on the list: “faith.” What better virtue than faith...but faith in what? That a book, started a few thousand years ago and added to and translated from ad infinitum, could be anything more than literature? That the beliefs formed by a primitive people in the absence of a better explanation of nature would still hold any validity in this modern age of science and enlightenment? That those same beliefs could have been right, even though countless other once-isolated groups of humanity devoutly believe in completely different explanations of nature, also for lack of a better explanation in the time of their ancestors? Faith in religious leadership, despite the long and storied history of abuse of power? (How do you think the Vatican amassed all its wealth? They took bribes to bestow a happy afterlife on those who could afford it. Don’t believe me? Spend some time in the history section of your local library.) Faith that somewhere, somebody knows all the answers?

No one has all the answers. Personally, I am not bothered by this. Curiosity is also a virtue, as should be skepticism, at least in my book. So when religious folk (or those pretending to be so) espouse faith, I wonder if they even know of what they speak. There seems to be an expectation that blind faith in religious or political leadership will result in a positive outcome, when this has never proven to be anything other than disastrous historically. Also, there’s the promise being repeated year in, year out, that sitting around and meditating will make things better if only you have faith in a “Creator.” They call it “prayer,” and it is an ultimately selfish, superstitious thing that will no more result in a better world than will knocking on wood or throwing salt over your shoulder.

Honestly, think of all the people you have known. Would you trust any of them with tremendous power or responsibility? Perhaps a few, but only with close supervision and assistance. Those faces on the television, no matter how grand or distantly removed they may seem, are no different from your drinking buddies or the gossip next door. They are prone to ignorance and intolerance at the very least, to cynicism and cruelty at the very worst. You simply cannot place that kind of faith in an individual. And as for having faith in a creator--come on, now. Do you still believe in Santa Claus? It was nice for awhile, it makes for a good story and is a useful tool for keeping the young honest, but they soon figure out that those letters from Santa are in Mother’s handwriting. Humanity has been finding limitless evidence of the absence of a creator--at least as described in our ancestors’ literature--for as long as there has been civilization. We are surrounded by a wondrous natural world for which there is no quick and easy explanation, but why should that be a drawback? Why would you let that bring you down? Is it not a joy to investigate, to hypothesize, to experiment, to learn? Is it wrong to feel a sense of wonder, and to actually follow it up with an attempt to learn, rather than casually dismissing something as being “God’s will?”

So why do I lay claim to such a word? I have faith in the ultimate goodness of humanity, despite our flaws. Evidence is all around us of the things we can achieve collectively, overcoming each others’ mistakes and false starts. I believe that life is ultimately worth living. We suffer so that we can later feel joy. That’s pain, that’s pleasure, that’s nature, and it irks me that the religious would cloak such a simple and natural concept with all kinds of obscure mythology and terminology, that they would try to use it to keep people asleep in the face of danger.

Worse still, it has now been hyphenated for use as “faith-based.” The very sound of it is meant to subvert any opposition--after all, if it’s faith-based, it must be good! Faith-based schools, faith-based homeless shelters, government money for faith-based programs. Apparently in churches they must preach that everyone else must not have any faith or any redeeming qualities of their own. There is an implicit exclusivity to the cult of the faith-based, an “us vs. them” mentality that emphasizes blind faith over the exercising of brain cells and of participatory decision-making.

Damn the hypocrisy of it all! All of our modern conveniences, indeed the whole world’s population of over five billion people, are only possible because generations of people questioned what they were told, and in the face of persecution conducted their research and built upon our collective scientific knowledge. The very loudspeakers and televisions used so frequently by the religious would never have come about if everyone had simply had the blind faith that they so espouse.

To help yourself read between the lines, to get the real gist of what is being said, replace “faith” with “fear” in the next article of news you read. Be fearful. Fear-based. For that is what is being exploited, the fear of superstitious folk who should know better but do not, often by people who profess to share in their belief, but do not.